Proton Switches to Rimini Street Support for Its SAP Applications

Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a global provider of enterprise software products and services, the leading third-party support provider for Oracle and SAP software products and a Salesforce partner, today announced that Proton, Malaysia’s first automobile manufacturer, has switched to Rimini Street for support of its SAP ECC 6.0 applications. By leveraging Rimini Street Support, Proton was able to immediately reduce its annual support costs by 50%, while also securing a premium-level, ultra-responsive support. Additionally, the automaker retained the flexibility to upgrade to SAP S/4HANA when it makes sense for their business, rather than being driven by SAP’s timeline. Once Proton made the switch to Rimini Street, the company was able to shift its resources and support savings into more strategic areas of the business, including the expansion of its manufacturing plant in Perak, Malaysia to enable increased production volumes.

Proton Switches to Rimini Street Support for its SAP Applications (Photo: Business Wire)

IT Cuts Mandated by Economic Challenges

Proton was established over 35 years ago as Malaysia’s first national car company. With its most recent models, the Proton Saga and X70, Proton increased its 2019 sales revenues by 50% and gained market share. However, tough economic conditions in Malaysia forced Proton to reduce its overall operating expenses by 30%. As part of the IT department’s cost-cutting exercise, annual fees from technology providers came under scrutiny and led to the company’s decision to switch from SAP to Rimini Street for its enterprise software support.

“One of the reasons we went with Rimini Street was to avoid the pressure to upgrade to SAP S/4HANA in 2027 if the organization is not ready, and still have the necessary support required,” said Marhalisa Matari, senior manager, IT Application Management, Group Information Technology for Proton. “Initially we were looking at savings in professional fees by keeping projects internal. However, resources were tight with multiple projects happening at the same time, so we made the decision to switch to Rimini Street with input from the IT team, management and the ERP system’s users.”

Personalized, Ultra-Responsive Support Model for Mission-Critical SAP System

Proton uses its mission-critical SAP ECC 6.0 application for its sales and distribution and material management processes (SDMM), financial accounting and controlling (FICO), plant maintenance, auto industry solution (IS Auto), advanced planner and optimizer (APO), production planning, and HR and payroll solutions. Proton, like all Rimini Street clients, benefits from the company’s flexible, premium-level enterprise software support model, including its industry-leading Service Level Agreement (SLA) of 15-minute response times for all critical Priority 1 cases. Clients are also assigned a Primary Support Engineer (PSE) who has an average of 15 years’ experience in the client’s software and is backed by a team of functional and technical experts, available 24/7/365.

“The support team on-boarded quickly, picking up Proton’s business practices during the knowledge transfer process. I was also impressed by the team’s proactive attitude about familiarizing themselves with Proton’s systems and environment, and we especially appreciate having a dedicated Primary Support Engineer (PSE) who knows our support history and background,” said Matari.

Matari continued, “Rimini Street makes customers feel important. They are very reassuring when problems arise and regularly check on our team, which is important to me. Also, the turnaround time for when a ticket is logged by my team and the response received from Rimini Street is fantastic. My team members do not even have time to go and make a cup of coffee, that is how fast Rimini Street gets back to their customers.”

“During times of economic uncertainty, companies must act quickly to focus on reducing risk, optimizing budgets and improving efficiency, and one way to accomplish this is by right-sizing their costly, low value annual enterprise software support costs,” said Andrew Seow, regional general manager, South East Asia and Greater China, Rimini Street. “More companies like Proton are leveraging Rimini Street to reduce costs and refocus their IT resources on improving competitive advantage and supporting the growth of the business.”

About Rimini Street, Inc.

Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI) is a global provider of enterprise software products and services, the leading third-party support provider for Oracle and SAP software products and a Salesforce partner. The Company offers premium, ultra-responsive and integrated application management and support services that enable enterprise software licensees to save significant costs, free up resources for innovation and achieve better business outcomes. Nearly 2,100 global Fortune 500, midmarket, public sector and other organizations from a broad range of industries rely on Rimini Street as their trusted application enterprise software products and services provider. To learn more, please visit https://www.riministreet.com/, follow @riministreet on Twitter and find Rimini Street on Facebook and LinkedIn. (C-RMNI)

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